Social

Currently Reading: Social: Why Our Brains are Wired to Connect by Matthew Lieberman

Best For: Anyone who wants to better understand the social behavior of humans

Favorite Quote:  “We intuitively believe social and physical pain are radically different kinds of experiences, yet the way our brains treat them suggests that they are more similar than we imagine.”

Notes:  While not normally someone who complains about the length of books, this one felt a little long at just about 300 pages.  Still, the information in here is fascinating.  Social pain is real pain – having a poor social network is just as bad for you as smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day –  people with paralyzed facial muscles are worse at reading the facial expressions of others (loss of mirroring ability).  It also reinforced what I read in Behave by Robert Sopolsky about the biological underpinnings of tribalism.  We innately favor in-group people and are skeptical of out-group persons.  It reinforced the importance of ‘Us vs. Them’ as a social construct.

Previous Book Read: The Geometry of Wealth by Brian Portnoy

On Deck: The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith (I still have not read, only talked about it in Econ class.  With all the talk recently about Modern Monetary Theory, its time to go back to Econ school and start with the basics).  The line up will continue with The General Theory of Employment Interest and Money by Keynes, The Road to Serfdom by F. A. Hayek, and Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman.  I’ve mentioned it before but I should also put Human Action by Mises on the list for my Austrian School libertarian friends.  Should be fun to revisit the classics and actually read the books this time around…not just the Cliff’s Notes.